Courses
SEMESTER II, SPRING 2010
Primarily for Undergraduates
GRMN0110-Intensive Beginning German
Aminia Brueggemann
Students who wish to complete the GRMN 0100 - 0200 sequence in one semester may do so by enrolling in GRMN 0110 for two semester credits. There are six hours per week in small drill sections conducted by fluent undergraduate teaching apprentices. Another three hours of classes will be conducted by the faculty instructor. Students MUST register for a conference, and a lecture section. Enrollment limited to 16.
20887 S01 H hr. (Tu,Th 9:00-10:20)
C01 F hr. (M,W,F 1:00-2:50)
C02 F hr. (M,W,F 1:00-2:50)
GRMN 0200 - Beginning German
Jane Sokolosky
Students continue to develop speaking, writing, listening and reading skills. At the end of the year, students will be able to communicate successfully about everyday topics, read short texts in German, and write simple narratives.
This is the second half of a year-long course. Students must have taken GRMN 0100 to receive credit for this course. The final grade for this course will become the final grade for GRMN 0100. If GRMN 0100 was taken for credit then this course must be taken for credit; if taken as an audit, this course must also be taken as an audit. Exceptions to this policy must be approved by both the academic department and the Committee on Academic Standing.
20891 S01 D hr. (M, W, F 11:00-11:50) & Tu 12:00-12:50
20892 S02 E hr. (M, W, F 12:00-12:50) & Tu 12-12:00:50
24719 S03 F hr. (M, W, F 1:00-1:50) & Tu 12:00-12:50
GRMN0400- Intermediate German
Jane Sokolosky
An advanced intermediate German course that stresses improvement of the four language skills: listening, writing, reading, and speaking. Some grammar review as needed. Frequent written assignments. Topics include German art, literature and film. Students read short stories, novels and work with iPods. Four hours per week. Prerequisite: GM 30 (GRMN 0300) or placement.
20894 S01 C hr (M, W, F 10:00-10:50) & Th 12:00-12:50
20895 S02 G hr (M, W, F 2:00-2:50) & Th 12:00-12:50
GRMN0600B-Was ist Deutsch?
Katherine Goodman
In this course we will examine some of the ideas and myths used over the centuries to unify Germans and give them a sense of their heritage and distinctiveness: concepts like 'das Reich' or 'Bildung', figures like 'Barbarossa' or 'der deutsche Michel.' In some cases we may find the same words ('Freiheit' or 'Gesellschaft') have very different connotations. Conducted in German. Prerequisite: GM 50 (GRMN 0500) or permission.
20897 S01 F hr. (M, W, F 1:00-1:50)
GRMN 0990D-The German Novel in the 19th and 20th century
Thomas Kniesche
The modern and postmodern German novel provides some of the most intriguing reading in the history of Western culture. From 19th century realism to 20th century postmodernism, these authors have commented on political events, provided historical insight, analyzed the German psyche, and initiated literary innovations that would have a profound impact on world literature and captivate readers worldwide. Works by Fontane, Kafka, Hesse, Mann, Grass, and Sebald, among others. In English. Liberal Learning. No prerequisites. Pending CCC approval
25342 S01 I hr. (T, Th 10:30-11:50)
GRMN 1320A - German Aesthetics from Lessing to Heidegger
Zachary Sng
A survey of some of the most important German-language contributions to theories of art. Authors include Lessing, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Nietzsche, Benjamin, Adorno, and Heidegger. Emphasis will be on how aesthetics intersects with literary theory and the idea of critique, and also how it contributes to discussions about knowledge, subjectivity, and power. All readings in English translation.
time tbd
GRMN1340L-The Modern Period
Carol Poore
Explores the fascinating flowering of modernity in Germany, including the period around 1900 (adolescent Angst and the new Broadway version), Weimar culture (revolution, women's emancipation), Nazi culture, and exile literature in socio-historical context; including examples from film, art, and popular culture. Authors may include: Wedekind, Brecht, Kafka, T. Mann, Toller, Keun. In German.
25135 S01 I hr (T, Th 10:30-11:50)
GRMN1440C - Poetry and the Sublime (COLT1430Q)
Zachary Sng
We will examine some theories of the sublime, and read them alongside selected poets who take up certain related questions about representation, perception, and power. The goal will be to come to a better understanding of why the sublime is important as a category in thinking about the relationship between literature, philosophy, and history. Texts may include: Longinus, Schiller, Kant, and Paul de Man on the theory of the sublime, and poetry by Hölderlin, Wordsworth, Rilke, and Celan. In English; reading knowledge of German helpful but not required.
time tbd
GRMN1450F-20 Years After: The End of GDR and German Reunification
Roberto Simanowski
The fall of the Berlin wall heralded the German reunification rather than the reformation of the GDR as an example of “democratic socialism”. The 20th anniversary gives reason to discuss the development of Germany since 1990. Readings of Volker Braun, Christa Wolf, Thomas Brussig, Ingo Schulze, Clemens Meyer, Yadé Kara. Films: Goodbye Lenin, Das Leben der anderen, Willenbrock. Issues discussed: Cold War, Perestroika, Reunification, East-/West-German identity, Migration and Globalisation. In German. Required proficiency level GRMN 0600.
25137 S01 C hr. (M, W, F 10:00-10:50)
GRMN1660U-What was Socialism?
Carol Poore
The international socialist movement was born in Germany, and many of Germany's most important cultural figures were attracted to its striving for social justice. Has socialism come to a tragic end, or is it being reborn today in a period of economic crisis? Course includes theoreticians such as Marx and Luxemburg, writers such as Heine, Brecht, and Heiner Müller, and a focus on East German culture (film, art, literature) and its aftermath since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In English.
25134 S01 J hr. (T, Th 1:00-2:20)
GRMN1900C- Cultural Industry and the Aesthetics of the Spectacle
Roberto Simanowski
Senior Seminar. This course explores mass culture and distraction as conceptualized by the Frankfurt School. Readings and discussions will engage with the emergence of distraction as a specific category of experience; the function of entertainment in the culture industries of Nazi Germany; the critique of mass culture in post war Germany, and the reformulation of spectacle and distraction in Culture Studies and postmodern discourse. Readings: Schiller, Adorno, Benjamin, Kracauer, Debord, Baudrillard, Postman, Virilio, Norbert Bolz. In German.
25138 S01 G hr (M, W, F 2:00-2:50)
Primarily for Graduates
GRMN2320C-Enlightened Laughter
Katherine Goodman
This course follows the development of German comedy and theory of comedy and laughter from the late Baroque to the Enlightenment. As did the dramatists and theorists, we will compare comedies and theoretical texts with earlier German and with foreign examples. What kind of laughter is appropriate for a bourgeois stage?for a German stage?Why is laughing important? What kind of laughing? These and other questions are pursued in dramatic and theoretical texts by Weise, Prehauser, tLuise Gottsched, J. C. Gottsched,Gellert, J. A. Schlegel, Lessing, also Molière, Destouches, Farquahar, Graffigny. German texts are read in German. Prerequisite: Graduate standing or permission.
15131 S01 M hr (M 3:00-5:20)
GRMN 2460D-Thomas Mann: Die Romane
Thomas Kniesche
In this course, we will read and discuss Thomas Mann's novels, from Buddenbrooks (1900) to Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull (1954). Emphasis on narratological analysis and historical contextualization. In German. Click HERE for more information.
25140 S01 N hr. (W3:00-5:20)
GRMN2660G-Reading (in) German Literature
Bettina Brandl-Risi
What is reading? And: What is reading in, for and of German literature? To which extent can the history of German literature since the 18th century be understood through a shift in readers’ attitudes advertising reading as a bourgeois model for subject-formation alongside a profound ambivalence towards the pleasures reading offers? Which developments in the conditions and techniques of reading can we trace (in terms of extensity, accessibility and popularity of reading) which shape text-reader-relations until today? We will discuss different theories of reading from reader-response-theory to performativity and the history of reading from the 18th century to our times and look into how literary texts (beginning with Goethe’s novel /Werther/) reflect readers and reading. Last but not least, we will ask: How is our own experience and performance of reading German literature? In German.
25141 S01 P hr. (T 4:00-6:20)
Courses for Concentration in Other Departments
TSDA1281B - Postdramatic Theatre (and Beyond) offered Spring 2010 (Bettina Brandl-Risi)
COLT 1410L - Philosophy and Tragedy (P. Saval)
COLT 1810W - Marx, Freud, Nietzsche and the Philosophy of Nikos Kazantazkis (M. Pourgouris)
COLT 2820S - Poetry after Kant (K. McLaughlin)
HIST 1972V - Modernity, Jews, and Urban Identity in Central Europe, 1867-1938 (M. Gluck)
JUDS 1980N - Hannah Arendt and the Jewish Condition (M. Gottsegen)
MUSC 0052 - Beethoven (D. Josephson)
MUSC 1600B - Adorno and Jankelevitch in Dialogue (D. Gooley)
MUSC 1640C - Wagner’s Ring (M. Steinberg)
MUSC 1672 - Hitler’s Gift (D. Josephson)
PHIL 1720 - Kant: The Critique of Pure Reason (K. Dunlop)
PHIL 2090A - Kant on Self-Knowledge (K. Dunlop)
